Three New Fabulous Features in Microsoft Word 2013 (Word 2013)

I have just recently switched to using Microsoft Office 2013 and yes, this means that most of my tutorials in Word, Excel, PowerPoint (and anything under the MS Office 2013 umbrella) will be based on version 2013. In this post I will share with you, the top three new fabulous features in Microsoft Word 2013 that are indeed very useful.

1. Convert and Edit PDF

This is probably the most welcomed feature that I am very grateful for since I constantly deal with a lot of documentation works in two major formats, i.e. PDF and Word. I can now open a PDF file through Word and directly edit its content without having to install any PDF converter or add-on tools

How This Works?

Click the File tab menu which opens up to a Backstage view. Then, click Open on the left side of the dark blue window pane.

In the Open Backstage view, click Computer and then click Browse.

Locate the PDF file that you want to open and edit.

A dialog box will appear to let you know it is converting the PDF file into Word. Click OK to proceed.Depending on the file size, Word may take longer to convert and open the file.

2. Reply to Comments

You can now reply to comments just like how you would reply to a status update or comment in Facebook! All comments are nicely organised on the right side of the document view, and you can even mark the comment as done after you have reviewed or made the necessary changes to address the comment.

How This Works?

Open the document where there are comments. The comment, in its simplest markup form, will look like this:

Place your mouse cursor over the comment. The comment will appear in a box and you will see which specific words in the paragraph that the comment refers to.

You will also see a Comment Reply button that allows you to reply to the comment. Click on the button to make a reply.

Your reply will appear just below the first comment.

To mark the comment as done, first, make the necessary changes to the document and save it. In this example, I’ve added a word “change” and save the document.Then, right-click on the comment and select Mark Comment Done.Note that if you did not make a change and save the document, the Mark Comment Done will be disabled.

The comment will appear as faded grey and shrinks to one line when you click elsewhere in the document.

3. Expand / Collapse Headings

When it comes to project documentation or user guide, the content of the document can gradually develop over time, from 50 pages to over 100 pages! You may need to revisit a particular section of the document without wanting to get distracted by other lengthy sections. With this latest feature in Word, you can collapse and expand a section of the document and focus on the part that you want.

How This Works?

In order for this feature to work, you must first format your document’s headings.The easiest way to do this is to use Word’s built-in styles.Highlight the entire sentence where you want to turn it into a heading.

Click Heading 1 under the Styles group from the Home tab.

The highlighted sentence becomes Heading 1. Repeat the same process to define the headings throughout your document (it can be Heading 2, Heading 3 and so on).

To collapse the section under “This is Heading One (1)”, move your cursor over the formatted heading. A tiny triangle will appear just beside the heading.

Click on the tiny triangle and this will collapse the section underneath, leaving only the heading visible in the document.

To expand the section, click on the same tiny triangle again. Now, imagine you have a lot of headings to deal with in the document, and you want to expand or collapse all of the headings at one time.Right-click any of the formatted heading and select Expand/Collapsefrom the pop-up menu.

To expand all headings in the document, select Expand All Headings. To collapse all headings in the document, select Collapse All Headings.